Recipe: Sweet and Sour Pork

I've been experimenting a lot with a classic Chinese favourite - sweet and sour pork. I say "a lot" really as an understatement, but which me and my (now ex-) flatmate gladly understated. It - both the cooking process and the end result - kept us going over the period when we were extremely stressed about work (me: finishing The Thesis) and The Big Move.

Sweet and sour pork is one of my (many) comfort foods. I simply love it and even have occasional SSP cravings. The natural sweetness of the vegetables, combined with the sourness of the vinegar, touched by a hint of ginger - mmm... Paired with fluffy steaming white rice, it is beautiful. It's also an exquisite blend of East and West, as I have discovered. In the West, it tends to be slightly sweeter and more gooey, with the addition of canned pineapples. I tried this with Yan Kit So's recipe below. It can also be made with sliced pork butt/belly, or with minced pork as in Barbara Tropp's recipe below. I've tried all these recipes with the following results:

- No canned pineapples. This tends to a) make the sauce too sweet, and b) mars the complexity of the flavours.
- No minced pork. This is a) difficult to coat and fry, and b) lacks the chewiness of sliced pork which adds a complex texture (crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside) to a complex flavour.
- Use 3 types of flour. Corn flour, with a tinge of water, makes the meat tender. Rice flour adds fluffiness to the batter. Potato flour/starch makes the batter crispy when fried.
Note that "corn flour" is called "corn starch" in America, to distinguish it from "corn meal" which is confusingly sometimes called "corn flour". Also, brown rice flour gives the batter a nutty flavour.


RECIPE 1: BARBARA TROPP


RECIPE 2: YAN KIT SO


RECIPE 3: MUM'S RECIPE, with tweaks from recipes (1) and (2).

400g lean pork shoulder or belly, sliced thickly
1 egg
corn starch
rice flour
potato starch

For the sauce:
8 tbsp water
4 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp soya sauce

2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp chilli sauce (optional)
3 tbsp rice or white wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp A1 sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1" ginger, cut into fine threads
1 big onion, peeled and chopped into small pieces
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped into small pieces
2 tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
1 red chilli, sliced
3 stalks scallions, sliced into 3cm strips


1. Marinate the sliced pork with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar. Coat with 2 tblsp of cornflour. Add 2 tbsp of water and stir in one direction until all the water is absorbed. Beat in one egg. Knead thoroughly and rest for 15 mins or longer.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients for the sauce.
3. After the meat has been marinated well, coat each slice with a combination of rice flour and potato flour in the ratio of 1:1. Heat about 1 inch of oil in a wok until smoking slightly (180 degrees celcius). Deep fry one batch until cooked and crisp, about 4 mins. Remove and drain. Repeat until all the meat has been cooked. Add and heat more oil as needed.
4. Heat 2 tbsp of clean oil. Fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant, about 3 mins. Add in onion, cucumber, tomatoes, chilli, and scallions. Stir fry for about 2 mins. Then add sauce and bring to a boil. Adjust the taste. Thicken with cornstarch solution if needed.
5. Add in the fried pork and mix well. Or serve pork with sauce in a separate bowl. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.

Bon appetit!